He said: "The GCSE subjects they are taking are those most valued by colleges, employers and universities, and will help young people to succeed in modern Britain.

"An exams system had developed that worked against the best efforts of teachers and the best interests of pupils. These results show our plan for education is correcting that."

Melissa Di Donato, vice president of ISV and OEM programs for Europe and Asia-Pacific at Salesforce said empowering future students to pursue careers in IT has never been more important as the industry is currently experiencing a shortage of software developers.

She said: "Learning to code and motivating students to focus on STEM [science, technology, engineering and maths] disciplines at university is an important step to a career in IT.

"Successful, well-rounded companies need to draw from the entire workforce - and training and education is the necessary first step to creating that skilled workforce. This broad focus will help to enhance the industry in its current state and create a wave of new role models for generations to come."

From September 2014, the UK national curriculum will require computing to be taught in schools from the ages of 5-16, instead of ICT.